It Has Been a Heck of a Century

So, here we are on the 100^th anniversary of the beginning of World War One and I look around and wonder if it’s possible for mankind to resolve our differences without war?  Unfortunately, there is only one answer and it is not a pleasing one.

I know it has been said by others the twentieth century should be called the Century of War.  Well it looks likely that trend in human evolution will continue for the foreseeable future.

The world first became aware of Islamic terrorism with the Palestinian Liberation Organization sponsored Black September group’s slaughter of Jewish athletes in the 1974 Munich Olympics.   America was directly affected first with the hostage taking of our citizens in Tehran in 1979. We have been engaged with these non-state actors, more or less ever since. At the same time we made a deal with the devil when we also supported their efforts against the Russians in Afghanistan throughout the 1980’s.  This provided the training and equipment that would come back to be used against us throughout the 1990’s, ultimately culminating with the attacks of 9/11.

So now we have been at war since then, and with our past and current chief executives have we achieved increased security?  Campaigning for the job President Obama made a significant number of promises on how he would make the world safer.  He has kept some, been stymied on others, and with the rest he has not seemed to make much headway based on what appears to be a lack of interest.  But at the end of the day I have to ask has he made the world any safer in the diplomatic choices he has made?

Did the US support for the overthrow of the Egyptian and Libyan dictators make Americans and the nation more secure through increased stability and sectarian rule?

Has the fact we have no presence in Iraq, or means to support the government we helped establish, made us more secure as Islamic extremists assault it?

Have we found a lever to help stabilize Syria?

Is effective diplomacy possible between Hamas and Israel?

How about Russia and China?  How are we doing there?

I’m sorry I don’t see a lot of positives coming from the current strategy and you can only blame the ills of the world on the man you replaced for so long before you have to own up to the problem, but then perhaps he is just another victim.  That does seem to be a line that plays well with the democratic base.